Defence
Legal
Part of the DCDC Mission is 'to maintain legal compliance and sustain a favourable legal environment for Defence activity and capability'. To that end, the DCDC has its own team of in-house lawyers.
Iraqi prisoners file past some of their captured weapons, guarded by a soldier.
When undertaking operations, commanders must take into account a broad and increasingly complex body of legal provisions including both domestic legislation and international legal norms.
The DCDC Legal Team comprises 3 lawyers, one from each Service, who are specialists in international law and have an operational background.
Their prime function is to provide legal advice and input into DCDC products from the outset. The team also discharges a number of discrete tasks for Defence.
The Legal Team’s core responsibilities are:
- To provide early and regular legal advice and input as conceptual and doctrinal thinking evolves and develops. The Legal Team also works closely with Strategic Trends on strategic futures issues. All DCDC outputs are examined to ensure legal compliance
- To provide the MOD with specialist advice on international weapons law. The team conducts, on behalf of the UK, legal reviews of all new weapons and means or methods of warfare and of associated technologies. Legal reviews are conducted at the Initial Gate, Main Gate and down-select stages of the MOD procurement cycle; this meets the UK's treaty obligation to ensure legal compliance in the procurement of new weapons. Urgent operational requirements are also legally reviewed on a 'one stop' basis
- To act as UK delegates at weapons-related treaty negotiations under the auspices of the Conventional Weapons Convention, providing specialist legal advice to the UK negotiators. This involves coordination with the FCO and international engagement with other States Parties, as well as regular attendance at conferences at the UN in Geneva
- To be the custodians for the 'Joint Service Manual of the Law of Armed Conflict' (JSP 383) and the 'Aide Memoire on the Law of Armed Conflict' (JSP 381) as well as doctrine publications on the 'Legal Support to Joint Operations' (JWP 3-46) and 'Prisoners of War, Internees and Detainees' (JDP 1-10)
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